Admitted at 7.30 am yesterday. Procedure at 1PM. Long wait. Took 5 hrs. Extremely sore throat. Horrendous headache. Never had that before. Allowed me to take my own Migraleve, followed up later by Paracetamol. Took about 6 hrs to go. Throat still bad.

Successful but he doesn't think it will last long and probably won't be able to have another one. Talked about finding a form of electrical disease. This was talking to OH so 2nd hand info.

Only slept about 2 hrs but don't plan to do a lot for next few weeks!

Lovely bed, great food.

Oh and this time there was a kind of Lilo on the operating table which was filled with water and heated and they could heat my paper gown as well. Think it really helped with my back. Feet were also supported on shaped gel packs.

Have to go, back on the Bumetanide after missing yesterday!

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Those hot bed things are great aren't they. This is something relatively new I think to help prevent patients from getting cold during long operations and procedures. That is what they told me anyway. The only one i had was during my prostatectomy in 2011which was about 4 hours. Never had them before.

It is interesting for me to read about all of these repeated ablations for AF. Would someone enlighten me? I had 4 ultimately failed cardioversions. Rather than attempting a 5th, I had, instead, an AV ablation and the activating of a pacemaker which had been put in a few months earlier, in preparation. The whole procedure took roughly one hour and a quarter. That was on October 13th of last year. My heart rate stayed at a steady, if uncompromising, 80, irrespective of what I did, physically. One month later, I had the pacemaker checked and "tweaked" so that my heart rate is now between 60 and 130 and still as steady as a rock. I return at the end of this month, when I apparently have the option of a further slight tweaking which would allow me to push myself, physically, a bit more. I presume that means that the pacemaker will be adjusted to recognise my body's need for extra energy if I were to cycle up a hill, for instance, something I wouldn't be able to do now because I would get too tired and out of breath. In all other normal respects, I am fine and whatever is happening with regard to AF, I am no longer aware of it, which is of huge psychological importance! I can only think that I was offered this pacemaker alternative because I am older (76) but more active than most retirees, both mentally and physically. Because the expected lifetime of the battery of a pacemaker is about 10 years, I wouldn't be expected to have as many expensive changes of battery as a younger person. This fact, unusually, appears to make me more eligible for a pacemakerjust because I am older with less statistical life expectancy ahead of me. Ho ho! I may fool them yet!

My EP is reluctant to put a pacemaker in as it is non reversible and he doesn't think it will give me much better quality of life as my heart rate although in persistent AF is not that fast with the meds. But I am very symptomatic and unable to exercise. Gentle walk and a bit of swimming is about it.